BecauseSCIENCE

My spice tolerance is considered godly to Catalans and I am more similar to Indians than them in terms of desire for flavor

Nationalism ≠ fascism like in the US. The indepes I know are also some of my strongest allies.

The South is just shitty when it comes to masculinity. Other places outside of that region (even still in the US) don’t mistake you for being gay if you’re short and not hypermasculine.

Spaniards and Catalans work together more than Americans in all aspects. Where Americans might be afraid of looking stupid to ask for help, it’s second nature for Spaniards to ask and share stuff. This extends to asking for help, Spaniards and Catalans are much more likely to ask for help/instruction before doing something than me (an American)

People in general are much warmer here than in the US: cheek kiss-hugs are the norm for meeting women and people aren’t afraid of accidentally touching each other like in the US. I have often experienced a funny phenomenon where my friends walk *into* me while we chat because that’s just how close you get to each other.

Metro is great, trains suck. If you have to go medium distances, use a bus.

Weed is softer than tobacco, and people mix it here.

Most people know English and can understand better than they can speak. They also think American accents are funny and if you befriend enough Catalans they will be just as likely to roast you as the average service job coworker. This does not mean they understand when you roast them back

Despite knowing that I wouldn’t be hearing any southern accents for a while, it’s still something I miss a lot. The time difference will eventually isolate you from the US, and you will need to adjust to being more on your own than before. I have been dealing with this via cooking traditional food for my roommates and classmates, especially biscuits. Everyone loves biscuits.

If your primary Spanish immersion is a bunch of upper-middle-class Catalans and you actively start learning Catalan in the process, you will start getting “unknown third accent” flagged by strangers

They will think you’re French

The first thing people will ask you as an American is if you like Trump. This is irrelevant of what context you are in. You Cannot Get Angry about this.

Most of the Americans in Barna can be considered as “Expats” or just “guiris” because they are either from NY or CA, and are here for a short time or have made 0 effort to integrate. The faster you leave expat circles the happier you will be

Op made the post unrebloggable lol but I want to add that this is actually a very good way to learn any languages. Hell, I do this with my own mother tongue too

You all know this, right? You know that when you mock people in Western states like Utah you're talking about people who live under theocratic laws that they didn't vote for and can't vote out of and gerrymandering so severe that despite the majority of voters in Utah being registered Democrats, it's blood red because they built it that way... right? You know this? Please tell me you know this.

The people of Utah voted on and passed a ruling to have a neutral 3rd party draw up new voting districts back in 2018 (basically democratic districts were carved up to be ineffective so people wanted them fixed)

The legislature decided they didn't like that and decided to ignore the votes and keep doing what they were doing (bad gerrymandering)

League of Women voters took them to court and in July of 2024 the judge said, uh, actually, yeah, you have to do what was voted on/approved by the people

The court decided that they would meet for a special session to pass an amendment to the state constitution saying that, actually, if they didn't agree with something the people voted on/passed they wouldn't have to uphold that decision

They got taken to court again (surprise surprise)

In September 2024 the lower courts ruled once again that no, you can't just fucking do that, you're actively trying to deceive voters with your convoluted phrasing

They don't meet again until January so god knows what hijinks they'll come up with to keep the state voting districts fucked up

Nobody's going to magically swoop in to rescue you. You can't just sit there and expect someone else to come save you. You have to get your shit together and do it yourself.

And they just shrug and nonchalantly explain that oh yeah, my roommate is an immigrant, new to the country and still learning the language, so I figured that it'd be useful to have little everyday vocabulary scattered all over in places where they'll see them every day.

So you're relieved that there's a sensible explanation but kind of incredulous because these things are fucking everywhere. You noticed a doorknob that has a sticker saying "doorknob" on it, and the table you two are sitting at has separate labels for "table", "tabletop" and "table leg" on it. Is the labelling some kind of a long-time hobby they keep doing or did they do all of this all at once?

But then I found out that I was actually one of her best friends, because I *listened* and liked to debate the same kind of philosophical questions. She had been telling her parents about me for months, about how kind and generous and funny I was.

I had no idea until I had to go no contact with my parents over their financial abuse. When she heard that, she told me that her parents, who have never met me, had offered to have me come to their home for holidays, as I was going to be on my own this year and likely for the next few. All on the basis of what she had told them about me.

People are more likely to say nice things about you than mean ones. And sometimes, you can be a force of good in someone’s life and not even realize it. I actually have quite a few stories like this, especially of late due to the “having to go NC with my parents over their attempts to detransition me”.